Society's Child
Putin's popularity is genuine and authentic, regardless of the anticipated and entirely predictable attempt to pour scorn on the election and its result by those for whom Russia can only be conceived of as a vanquished enemy or a deadly enemy that needs to be vanquished. No democratic system is perfect, neither Russia's, the UK's, or that which underpins the United States - indeed, perhaps especially that which underpins the United States.
Whereas in 2012 he took 63.6% of the vote on a 65.25% turnout, this time round, Putin garnered 76.68% of the vote on turnout of over 67%.
No matter, commentators in the UK, consumed with anti-Russia fever over the Skripal case, have without any hint of irony made great play of the fact that the result means that Vladimir Putin is now the longest serving Russian head of state since Joseph Stalin.

Justin Johnson, 36, and his Miccosukee girlfriend, Rebecca Sanders, 28, display pictures of newborn Ingrid Ronan Johnson
Two days later, police detectives arrived at the hospital acting on a court order to remove the baby from the new parents.
The order was not signed by a Florida judge, but by a tribal court judge on a reservation 32 miles away in the heart of the Everglades. The cops were from the Miccosukee police force, a department whose jurisdiction covers mainly the reservation and properties owned by the tribe.
The hospital on Sunday allowed the baby to be taken away.

Students at Roosevelt High School take part in a protest against gun violence Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Seattle. Politicians in Washington state are joining students who walked out of class to protest against gun violence. It was part of a nationwide school walkout that calls for stricter gun laws following the massacre of 17 people at a Florida high school.
A week after the March 14 walkout, school officials are grappling with complaints from parents outraged by the specter of their kids engaged in political protesting on school time, as well as reports of criminal mischief committed by teens who treated the event as a get-out-of-class-free card.
What's more, the students get to do it all again next month. A substantially identical event, also called the National School Walkout, is scheduled for April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre.

More than a quarter of all Muslims currently in prison have been incarcerated because of drug offences, compared to 13 per cent of all non-Muslim prisoners
An alarming surge in the number of Muslims being jailed for drug offences has prompted accusations that the Government is failing to deal with growing social problems in Britain's impoverished Islamic communities.
The number of Muslims in prison for drug offences in England and Wales has jumped by 63 per cent over seven years, rising from 2,089 in 2010 to 3,406 in 2017, according to figures obtained by The Independent using Freedom of Information laws.
Over the same period, the number of non-Muslims in prison for drug offences has declined by more than ten per cent.
More than a quarter of all Muslims currently in prison have been incarcerated because of drug offences, compared to 13 per cent of all non-Muslim prisoners.
Comment: It is notable the offences are related to making money from selling drugs and not violent crimes, which is actually on the increase in the UK
- London crime wave: Theft, burglary, rape, violent crime and homicide skyrocket
- England's police deployed to hunt down 'offensive speech' amidst an actual rise in crime
- The Truth Perspective: Weapons of Mass Migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe's Migrant Crisis
While it is not yet certain when Libya will vote in a presidential election, due to varying interpretations of the electoral process by the power-seeking factions of the country, Saif Al Islam Gaddafi, son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, announced on Monday his bid to run in the race as a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Libya (PFLL). His candidacy bid was confirmed to RT by his lawyer, Khaled Al-Ghwail, who believes that his client has a good chance of winning.
"Saif Al-Islam has many supporters. They are ordinary people. Even those who have previously committed to the [Arab Spring] cause now support the comprehensive vision of Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi,"Al-Ghwail told RT.
"Saif Al-Islam is capable of uniting Libyans around himself on the basis of national interests and those decisions that the Libyans themselves will take," Al-Ghwail added. "This is a reform project, which should lead Libya into a calm harbor."
The city I live in is along a river, and 6 years ago they wanted to build a park along the river. There was a proposal and a public hearing for the park. The park would consist of 1/2 miles of concrete sidewalks, 8 Benches, 1 Gazebo, 2.5 acres of grass (not sod, but that spry on seed mulch stuff), and a small play area for kids (~30′ x 30′)
The plans were laid out, the art work was made public, and the city said that they had enough surplus to pay for it. It was voted on, passed, and the final budget was $7.5 Million. They hired a company to do the work, no questions asked, and the work begun. They said it would take 12 weeks to complete and the park would be opened before the 4th of July.
Two years later, and another $5,000,000 the park was still not completed. The construction company disappeared and eventually the city sold the naming rights to a local company and they completed the park (slightly less then was first presented to the community). And it opened to no fanfare just over 3 years after it was scheduled to.
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In their research essay titled "Towards a truer multicultural science education: how whiteness impacts science education," University of Colorado at Denver scholars Cheryl E. Matias and Paul T. Le seek to "have the field consider the theoretical frames of whiteness and how it might influence how we engage in science education such that our hope for diversity never fully materializes."
"Whiteness embraces White ideology, and because Whites are at the apex of the racial hierarchy, whiteness becomes normalized and is invisible to those who benefit the most from it," the scholars observe. "This is particularly troubling because the normality of whiteness means that Whites do not believe that they are actively investing in White supremacy or racism, which keeps oppression intact."
While "the [science] culture attempts to be unbiased through peer reviewing and consistent methods and methodologies," this interpretation "falsely makes us believe that science is an objective enterprise and transcends culture," the academics assert.

A training session for Palestinian children on detention, interrogation and trial
Among the ostensible achievements are the establishment a juvenile court in the military court system, allowing for the increased involvement of parents in the military justice system, decreasing the length of time a child can be detained before being brought before a judge, and even an abandoned experiment of issuing summonses to Palestinian minors instead of sending an invading force of soldiers to arrest them in their homes in the middle of the night - the common practice today.
Comment: Geeze, those are the improvements? Even if they were implemented, it just goes to show what a barbaric country Israel is. Come on, guys, it's past time you entered the 21st century here.
A report published by Israeli human rights group B'Tselem on Tuesday argues that these so-called improvements have improved very little. The juvenile military court system system, which uses the tactic of denying bail to pressure over 70 percent of juvenile defendants and their families into accepting plea bargains, has a startling conviction rate that exceeds 95 percent.
The military juvenile courts do not come close to conforming to international standards and conventions signed and implemented by Israel, according to the B'Tselem report. And Israel's treatment of Palestinian minors contrasts starkly with the treatment Israeli children receive in Israel's separate, civilian juvenile justice system.
The Israeli army prosecuted 1,046 Palestinian minors in 2014 and 2015, according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. More than a quarter of those indictments were of children 15 and under. Already in the first two months of 2018, the army arrested 274 Palestinian minors who were thrust into the military court system, according to Palestinian human rights group Addameer.
The directive, obtained by Radio Canada, the French-language arm of CBC, instructs Service Canada employees who interact with the public to stay away from terms such as Mr., Mrs., father and mother, and to "use gender-neutral language or gender-inclusive language."
"This avoids portraying a perceived bias toward a particular sex or gender," says a copy of speaking notes prepared for managers and team leaders. "It is important that Service Canada, as an organization, reflects Canada's diverse population and ensures that the views and interests of Canadians are taken into account when we develop policies, programs, services and initiatives."
Comment: They're not even worried about bias; they're worried about 'perceived' bias. This has nothing to do with a diverse population. Yes, Canada, like all nations is diverse in that it has two sexes, as well as a tiny minority of people confused about their sex. That doesn't mean we have to stop using language that applies perfectly well to everyone already, even the vocal and easily offended activist minority of gender deniers.
The move was quickly mocked by the Conservative opposition, who suggested Father's Day and Mother's Day would be renamed to be gender-neutral.
Dear Hillary Clinton, Shut up already, please? Have you not embarrassed yourself enough? Now, in addition to quite a few other excuses as to why you lost, you are blaming white women. Specifically, conservative married white women. Your latest slur against a growing number of American citizens, which is sealing Donald Trump's future victory, is that we cannot think for ourselves, do not possess the willpower of a fly, and must trust the most important political decision of any Americans life to our husbands, our sons, or, more laughably, to our bosses.
We Control Our Own Narrative
So here is a wake-up call, Hillary. We are our own bosses. We have no one over us. We are business owners, writers, individuals with our own thought process. Most married women's husbands wouldn't dare tell them what to do, much less who to vote for. As a matter of fact, some of us are the reason they voted for Donald Trump. There are many of us. Hillary, maybe you should take a look at what real conservative married white women are saying on social media. A fantastic list of MAGA ladies who needed no assistance at all in determining who to vote for can be found in Twitter user @bradfordfile's tweet, here.
Comment: Bingo. 'The Basket of Deplorable White Women' with only 'one' painful, unending exception.











Comment: Using kids for partisan political activism. It doesn't get much lower than that.
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